Tip: Don't 'Blow Smoke'

When he interviews candidates for postdoc positions in his lab, Comrade PhysioProf says he couldn't care less how much they know about what's going on in his lab, other than at a basic level. "What I care about is what they know about what they have done previously, can talk about it intelligently and creatively, and whether they would bring an interesting perspective to our intellectual milieu," he says. Not very many PIs care about having "smoke blown" at them, PhysioProf adds. All he wants to hear from postdoc candidates is that they're interested in his lab because of the work he does, and what they can bring to it.